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Courtesy of The Fairfax Journal, October 18, 2001
Welcome to the Fairfax Opinion Section

Sensible Growth

To all Directors and Directors-at-Large:

Dr. David Schnare, OWC Director and Chairman of its Environmental and Land Use Committee, is featured in the October 18, 2001 Editorial of The Fairfax Journal. The Journal's Editorial focuses on Dave's Article on "Sensible Growth in Virginia", which is contained in The Campaign 2001 Briefing Book, published by The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Mike Thompson, The Institutes' founder andPresident, is an OWC Director-at-Large. The Journal's Editorial is reproduced for your review, below.

Warm Regards,
Al Akers


Welcome to the Fairfax Opinion
Section 18-Oct-01

Sensible Growth

THE SPRINGFIELD-BASED Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy has come out with a thought-provoking look at issues confronting the commonwealth.

Institute President Michael Thompson says the goal of the Campaign 2001 Briefing Book is to tackle the thorny issue of how to resolve ``the seemingly conflicting goals of managed growth and economic development."

In a chapter entitled ``Sensible Growth in Virginia," David Schnare, a lawyer and senior environmental specialist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, outlines the impediments to achieving the American dream:
  • Loss of social capital. People don't talk to or trust their neighbors, making it harder to reach political consensus.
  • ``A la carte" lifestyle opportunities. People tend to assemble their own personal communities, which are not defined by geography.
  • A large number of women in the paid work force, where they do less community work and put more stress on the transportation system.
  • Market forces favoring suburban ``edge cities," where businesses can find a trained workforce and amenities that attract educated employees.

Schnare, who lives in western Fairfax County, says that over the last three decades, ``urban planners using comprehensive plans admit they have been unable to fully accomplish" the twin goals of expanding economic development and maintaining the quality of life people expect. But he believes the obstacles can be overcome. Schnare says progress was made only when Fairfax County officials turned over to constituents the seemingly insoluble problem of coming up with new transportation corridors without compromising the Occoquan watershed, a major source of drinking water.

A task force, told only to pick the criteria by which to evaluate land-use and transportation proposals, also had to get the approval of all parties involved. It did, because everybody knew they would be left out of the process otherwise.

Because rail-based mass transit in Northern Virginia gets 30 percent of the transportation funds, but doesn't carry even close to 30 percent of commuters, he recommends the Legislature expand the concept of transit subsidy to include high-speed broadband computer connections to facilitate teleworking.

Some form of ``state discipline" is also needed to prevent local officials from buckling under pressure from developers, who want to build homes where roads should go, and from ``no growth" advocates, who don't want anything built.

``Had the General Assembly required Northern Virginia to build its planned highway system, rather than stand by as it removed 1,500 miles of roadbed from the map 30 years ago, the transportation and air quality crisis would be substantially less," he correctly notes. Since the cost of government services per household decreases as zoning is reduced to 1.25 acres, high-density and mini-farm zoning such as found in Loudoun County should be
reserved ``for limited purposes only."

Schnare emphasizes that his approach, which he calls ``sensible growth," is no quick-fix panacea, but says voters ``will not countenance a `phony consensus' built on a miasma of rhetoric," including the suggestion that ``people who are happy living in the suburbs really ought to be miserable."

So it's still OK to really like where you live.